was tried in the English Courts and acquitted. There followed such a manifestation of feeling in France that it was thought high time for England to look to her defences. On May 9th, 1859, the "Times" newspaper published some stirring verses by the poet Tennyson, beginning :

There is a sound of thunder afar,

Storm in the South that darkens the day!

with the refrain at the end of each verse :Riflemen, Riflemen, Riflemen, form!

Three days afterwards General Peel, Secretary of War, issued a circular letter to the Lords Lieutenant of the Counties authorising the formation of Volunteer Corps. In a few months a force of over one hundred thousand volunteers was raised.

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Along with this a similar movement began in the schools. It so happened that Rossall School was the first to enrol a corps. Her School Corps was enrolled on February 1st, 1860, and two Cadet Companies established in connection with it, during the Headmastership of the Rev. W. A. Osborne. The first Captain was the late Mr. Hector Croad, formerly Clerk to the London School Board. him the establishment of the Corps was mainly due. It is said that the Government of the day was at first disinclined to put rifles into the hands of school boys. The Duke of Devonshire (then Marquis of Hartington) showed more foresight. He persuaded them that the rifle in the hands of school boys would be more dangerous to the enemy than to the boy. As a matter of fact many of the soldiers of the great Napoleon were only fifteen years old when they began their service; and, in later years, the excellence of the shooting at Wimbledon, Bisley and elsewhere has proved over and over again that it is quite easy to make a school boy into a good shot.

The Rossall Corps was enrolled under the name of the 65th Lancashire, and was attached to the bat

talion under the command of the Marquis of Hartington. The boys had to cross the waters of Morecambe Bay two or three times a term to drill with their battalion, and might almost be described as a species of Marine Light Infantry.

If in this honourable rivalry Rossall had the good fortune to be first to enrol a corps, Eton, Harrow, Marlborough, and Winchester all raised corps much about the same time-certainly in the same year. These five schools, then, may be said to have led the way in a movement which now, under the auspices of the Earl of Meath and our great soldier patriot, Earl Roberts, seems likely to provide England with a practicable solution of the compulsory service difficulty. Though every other nation adopts the system except ourselves and the United States, conscription is a name of ill savour to an Englishman. To us the idea of compulsion in such a matter is unbearable. Yet compulsion by our own. elected Parliament is far better than the compulsion of a victorious enemy; and it cannot be denied that to remain unarmed is to invite attack.

In England things move slowly too slowly in the face of danger. Yet, if the nation hangs back, the schools seem to be going on. So far, the military training in the schools has been mainly confined to those schools which maintain a corps and, in these schools, to those who are energetic and patriotic enough to join the corps. Now, however, a new departure has taken place. At Bradfield and Rossall, and possibly other schools, the elements of military drill have been taught for some years past to the rest of the school, the civilians outside the corps. The custom is spreading, and under the influence of the recent appeal made by Lord Roberts, some twenty or thirty schools now drill all their boys. Some schools are more fortunate than others. Some, for instance, have as many as three ex-army sergeants

permanently retained-the School Sergeant, the Sergeant in charge of the Gymnasium or Baths, and a third, the Sergeant of the Cadet Corps. With these it is possible to give the civilian contingent a drilling which is quite first rate. The employment of Army Sergeants in various capacities about a school is to be recommended on a great many grounds. They are the pick of the army, and could easily replace some of the civilians already employed. As for the drilling, it certainly does the boys much good. It gives them an upright carriage, expands the chest, removes the slouch, and trains them to be attentive to the word of command and quick in obeying it. The drill is not found to interfere either with school work or with school games. Half-an-hour's drill twice a week throughout the year is found to be quite sufficient to teach a squad the elements. An elaborate system of drill is not deemed necessary. If more is required, more time can be given, still without interfering with work or games. This may, however, be more difficult at day schools, where work does not begin till 9 a.m., and boys have to spend time travelling to and fro between school and home. Still, it is hoped it will not be long before a military training will be a recognised part of all school training. There will then be less need of conscription. Every boy in the elementary schools, and also in the secondary schools, including the larger public schools, will have received a military training which is both physically and morally beneficial. Thus will be provided, against the hour of need, a great citizen army, an army destined for defence not for aggression. It will embrace nearly all the manhood of England.

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More, however, is needed than drill. be practical. Drill is little good without shooting. Good shooting, even without drill, was found all too

effective in the Boer War. Though it is a great thing that universal drill has become the custom in so many schools, it is infinitely more important that some practice in shooting should be made part of the routine of every school. This is already the case at Uppingham, Harrow, Rossall, Glenalmond, Repton, and Dover. It is no new idea. History tells of a time when the practice of archery was encouraged by Act of Parliament even in the schools, as the Shooting Fields at Eton and the Butts at Harrow bear witness. Neglect, be it noted, was punishable by a fine. It is greatly to be desired that more schools would encourage rifle practice. There have been difficulties in the way. It has been wished, for instance, to preserve the shooting as one of the privileges of the Cadet Corps. Then there has been the cost of the ammunition, the difficulty of finding a range close at hand, or of providing enough butts on the range to render it possible to pass, perhaps, several hundred boys through their shooting course in the limited time available. It has, however, been discovered that practice with a miniature rifle at a miniature target with miniature bullets at thirty yards range is almost as good a training for a boy as the practice with the full sized rifle. These small rifles are of two classes-air rifles and powder rifles. Where the miniature air rifle is used, the cost of the rifle, and of the ammunition, and the labour required for cleaning, are reduced to a minimum. The rifles in which powder is used require more cleaning, and the ammunition costs more. It is a great advantage that the miniature rifle is only useful at short range. Little space is needed. The element of danger is all but eliminated. It is possible to put several ranges side by side, with a partition between each if necessary. If the civilians use the miniature rifle, the use of the full-sized rifle can be retained as the privilege of the Cadet Corps.

Some day, perhaps, the Board of Education will require all this as an essential part of every English boy's physical education. The Government will then, it is hoped, find rifles and ammunition; and, above all, will use their great powers to compel the provision of ranges. This is of vital importance. Meanwhile, the Volunteer Cadet Corps are invaluable to the nation. Everything should be done to encourage them. Privileges may well be reserved for those whose patriotism is willing to take so much trouble and incur so much expense. At all schools they alone are given the right to wear the King's uniform. They alone have the privilege of attending field days. These are generally held in some attractive piece of country, and provide the corps with an outing, which is a useful experience, and certainly a very enjoyable holiday. In some schools, as at Rossall, the members of the corps have also the privilege of the use of the baths as a drill hall in winter time. The water is turned off, and the bath boarded over with a stout platform supported by trestles. Here the winter hours are enlivened by spirited competitions between the various houses in physical drill and squad drill. It is an interesting sight to see the boy sergeants of the houses, each in their turn, march and countermarch their squads backwards and forwards across the drill hall at the word of command, unravelling difficult situations, and managing the whole squad as if it were a single individual. The use of the rifle range is also confined to the corps. Few schools are fortunate enough to have a private range. There must be a good many districts throughout the length and breadth of England where the provision of more ranges would greatly help the movement.

But if good shooting is the most important element in our defensive organisation, good scouting is also equally important, especially in a nation which